The performers in Knights of the Old Republic, as a group, might have delivered the best voice-acting we've ever heard in a videogame. They're all outstanding from top to bottom and consistently deliver heavy doses of personality and emotion that help make this such a compelling Star Wars story. And this isn't limited to the melodramatics either; there are some lines in KOTOR that are genuinely funny. Afterthoughts, comments made under the breath and all kinds of little details like that are used liberally throughout the game to convey meaning and wouldn't have been possible with low-budget voice talent. The sound effects themselves are a no-brainer as Bioware dipped into the same library of Star Wars sound effects that every developer from Raven to Factor 5 has used to bring their games to life. The surround sound is well applied in a game of this type and really punctuates the importance of a battle after you've been walking around talking for extended periods of time.

Everybody's got plenty to say in Knights. The only person who doesn't speak is your character. The voice acting talent on board for this game is impressive but once you get into the story, you will stop trying to remember who is being played by Ed Asner because all the dialogue, from all the characters, major and minor, is top notch. Whether it's a Sith soldier trying to goad you into a fight, a drunken mercenary trying to swoop on a couple of space chicks or a Jedi's disapproving mother, there's nothing canned or fake about the responses you get from these people. This goes for non-English (or Basic for the Star Nerds out there) speakers too. A Wookiee's voice goes from a whining whimper to a roar when he starts talking about something emotional, just like Chewbacca showed us back in the day. Droids beep and bloop but will make that robo-flatulation sound R2D2 used to make when they disagree with something. All the Rodians sound like Greedo, the Twi'lek's like Bib Fortuna and the Duros sound like those two guys talking at the same time and arguing with each other in the cantina in the original Episode IV. Exactly what you expect from a Star Wars game no?

The only sound more satisfying than the crackle and hum of a lightsaber starting up is the sound of two sabers lighting up. The sound effects in KOTOR are perfect. Beginning with the lightsabers and blasters, on to the roar of a ship's engines to the clanging of metal on metal when a blast door shuts, this game has the sounds of the franchise nailed. And that's all we have to say about that.

The music in the game is subtle but it's always there and is equally outstanding. Bioware's clever move to simply replicate the Episode IV-VI feel with new characters is reinforced with the themes we know from those movies. You'll hear the Imperial Death March even though it'll take Darth Vader 4000 more years to write it. Many of John William's themes are present as background music when you're shuffling around Tattoine or Dantooine. The original music in the game is brought to the forefront whenever you're travelling in the Ebon Hawk during a cutscene but it all fits in the larger program Bioware has given us: "This is Star Wars, but our version."

Technical Issues

As many people know, there were some bugs in the Xbox version of the game. Considering how many more configurations are possible with the varied PCs found in the homes across the world, it's not really surprising that we should find some in this version as well. At this point, there haven't been any game ending problems, such as corrupted save files or the like, but after about 15 hours of play, the game did crash to the desktop three times, none of which we could get to repeat in the same spot. There were also some sound issues where an audio track would repeat over and over while the game kept playing. Saving and restarting the game solved that problem, but it was still annoying. Other than that, there's plenty of collision problems (even in the middle of a seemingly empty hallway connection) and NPC pathfinding issues. None of these really made a dent in the fun of the game, but we figured they should be noted.

The Verdict

Knights of the Old Republic is an outstanding game because it covers every single angle in terms of audience expectations. It's got enough Star Wars to satisfy the fans and enough pure fun to draw in people who normally wouldn't get into role-playing games. You'll see this on several Game of the Year nomination lists if not at the very top soon enough.

It grabs you early on by giving your character some cool toys to play with and some familiar Star Wars critters to welcome you back and next thing you know you've got a space ship, a light saber, a wookie and a droid. With Knights of the Old Republic, the galaxy is yours, get out there and get some.